Monthly Archives: February 2012

Elaine, Anne, and The Band Perry

28 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by in creativity, writing

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Many times, when I’m contemplating a blog post, I do a little online research. When I find something I think is interesting, I wonder…will my readers find my idea at least the tiniest bit as interesting as I do?

This online walkabout started with the Grammys. For some reason, this song by The Band Perry struck a chord with me.

If I die young, bury me in satin, lay me down on a bed of roses;
Sink me in the river at dawn, send me away with the words of a love song.

And when a song strikes a chord with me, of course my fingers tick and tap the keyboard, to look it up on YouTube. As I was watching the video, something looked familiar. The lead singer gets into a boat, lies down with a book on her chest…and then water starts to seep into the boat. Hmmm….

Of course I thought the book lying on her chest should be Anne of Green Gables, since the video is almost straight from the pages of that beloved book. But instead, the book was Tennyson poetry. The pages show “The Lady of Shallot” at the end of the video. What did I do? Tickity tap…I found The Lady of Shallot. This lady, otherwise known as Elaine, is under an unknown curse, and at the end of the poem, she rides to Camelot in a boat. Sadly, she dies before arriving. Sir Lancelot gazes upon the dead lady, lying in her boat.

But Lancelot mused a little space
He said, “She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott.”

But what about Anne? Romantic, red-headed Anne? I just had to get my hands on a copy of Anne of Green Gables. And I found it, on one of my favorite websites, Project Gutenberg. And yes, she and her schoolmates, or kindred spirits as Anne likes to call them, reenact Tennyson as well.

For a few minutes Anne, drifting slowly down, enjoyed the romance of her situation to the full. Then something happened not at all romantic. The flat began to leak. In a very few moments it was necessary for Elaine to scramble to her feet, pick up her cloth of gold coverlet and pall of blackest samite and gaze blankly at a big crack in the bottom of her barge through which the water was literally pouring.

Anne is rescued by her archenemy Gilbert, about whom I shall not say any more if you have not read the book! (wink, wink!)

Quite a few years ago, when I lived in an apartment, I would listen to Loreena McKennitt’s CD to help lull me to sleep. Although I prefer it to be quiet at night, I lived above a college student who lost his license due to drunk driving. Usually he was okay, but every once it a while it got a little noisy. I would try to drown out the noise with “The Highwayman”. And while I was looking for the words to “The Lady of Shallot”, I found that Loreena McKennitt also sings this poem. The gorgeous artwork in this video makes me miss my art books that I lost in my flooded basement last summer. *sigh*

Oh, I’ve had fun with all this online exploring! And even if I have bored you with my walkabout, I hope that you and I can still be kindred spirits, Anne-style!

Have your online searches led you to some interesting finds? Please tell!

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Cheezborgers at the Billy Goat

27 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in Miscellaneous

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It’s always fun when a little bit of the city comes out to the suburbs. I’m not talking about the buses with an ad for The Lorax attached, puffing black smoke in front of me as I drive Emmy to preschool. We’re actually not that far from the city. At just the right spot on Milwaukee Avenue, we can see the Chicago skyline. We do make it downtown every once in a while.

And now, just down the street from us is a new Billy Goat tavern. The owner of the original Billy Goat was famous (or infamous, depending on how you look at it) for putting a curse on the Chicago Cubs when he wasn’t allowed to bring his pet goat to a game. That curse still lives on, even though there have been attempts to break it by bringing a goat into Wrigley Field.

Remember the Saturday Night Live sketch with John Belushi that went “Cheezborger, cheezborger! No fries, cheeps!”? Yes, that was based on the Billy Goat.

So can a tavern that made its reputation in the big city make it in the ‘burbs?

Even though they are famous for not having fries, this location does. They were my kind of fries! You should know this about me…I don’t share my fries with anyone. They were crisp and crunchy on the outside, hot and potato-ey on the inside. The hamburger bun was really good, but its heftiness needed more burger, I thought. The burgers come plain, and it’s up to you to dress them up. Lettuce and tomato would have been nice, but onions and pickles were the only extras besides ketchup and mustard.

The service was fast, though, and there’s a movie theater across the street. The Billy Goat would be a good place to get a bite to eat before a show. I loved have the big windows all around the place, and it would also be fun to sit at the bar for a girl’s night out.  Next time, I’ll skip the cheezborger and try the Greek salad.

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